10/21 and 10/22: Stop Police Brutality events

We just want to clear-up a few matters importance about his mysterious activities abroad.

Wanted Poster

Gee, it's so hard to feel bad for the authoritarian communist sect, their beloved "revolutionary" leader is made fun of anonymously of indymedias. So, instead of doing something valid with their time, as anarchists have been, by confronting the racism, sexism, and homophobia of the various indymedias, they complain that their leader is the victim of slander by an alleged "political police." Enjoy the IMCs now, kids, for if the Revolutionary Communist Party is ever in charge, you might find yourself having to deal with their political police. Read their letter to the indymedias below.

<img src="http://www.anarchistblackcross.org/images/library/images/RCP-burn.jpg">

Dear Indymedia,

We are requesting that a series of posts on your Indymedia site be immediately removed. The URL for these posts is: http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/22422.php.

These posts are part of a series of coordinated posts occurring throughout the Indymedia network, all initiated by the same person (gybi) about Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). The posts are characterized by calls to track him down, slanders, and dangerous false accusations as well as ad hominem attacks. The Austin Indymedia in particular contains a fake AP article from the LA Times with completely false and baseless accusations regarding terrorist type activities.

In the heavy times we are living, posts like these can have serious and terrible consequences and should not be allowed. Posts that make baseless accusation serves to provide the red squad, FBI and CIA (i.e. the political police for short) with a pretext to go after the individual or the organization. We have already seen that on the basis of even flimsier rumors, a number of Arab-Americans have been disappeared and held incommunicado for months. We think that you will agree our concerns are real and well-founded.

The posts do not have the ring of being authored by those who have genuine disagreement with the Revolutionary Communist Party or Bob Avakian. Rather, they appear to be an attempt by the political police to use the Indymedia network for their own nefarious aims. Some Indymedia sites have already removed these posts. I have included at the end of this letter the URL for several of the links to these strands from Indymedia’s around the country so you can get a flavor for what is going on, both on your own site, as well as throughout the Indymedia network.

We think you will agree that these posts are against the spirit and intent of the Indymedia network’s mission and purpose. It is not in any of our interests to allow the Indymedia network to be used as a way to help the political police in whatever they are trying to do. It is not in any of our interests for the Indymedia network to become a vehicle for the political police to set people up and issue calls to inform on revolutionaries (regardless of the intent of those that end up getting sucked into this) to attack and participate in repression against those resisting the injustices of this system. These types of posts and the information they gather can cause serious harm to revolutionary and progressive people.

We are writing with an immediate request that these specific posts be removed right away and any further posts along these same lines (against anyone) also be prohibited. However, we would also like to work with Indymedia and others to develop a discussion on guidelines about how to prevent the political police from taking advantage of Indymedia’s openness and spirit (and the web in general) in order to spy, harrass and set up those fighting on the people's side. I will write again soon about this. In the meantime, we look forward to hearing back from you about removing these posts.

My best,

Jessie

RCP Publications Public Relations Department

Sample list of URL’s from around Indymedia network:

http://austin.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/17918

(contains fake LA Times article)

http://indybay.org/news/2004/10/1699199_comment.php

(This contains a “wanted poster” following a post about October 22 protests)

http://chicago.indymedia.org

(unfortunately, the Chicago site is currently down, but contains original post to “track” him down, and numerous other ugly stuff, including posts digging up obituaries of his parents and calling for investigating his living relatives)

http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/127969

(We also heard that the “Wanted Poster” was posted on the NYC site, but it appears to have been removed by NYC Indymedia)

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/300560.shtml

http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/242671.shtml

http://atlanta.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/33696

http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/34052.php

http://okimc.org/newswire.php?story_id=238&media_type=TEXT

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/117953.php

http://www.phillyimc.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/22/2137234&mode=thread

http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/22422.php

http://arkansas.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/4824